Victoria City

Chinese|t=維多利亞城|s=维多利亚城|j=wai4 do1 lei6 aa3 sing4|y=wàih dō leih a sìhng|p=Wéiduōlìyà Chéng
pic=Victoria City and Kowloon 1915.jpg|picc

City of Victoria at the bottom

Victoria City, or the City of Victoria, was one of the first urban settlements in Hong Kong after it became a British colony in 1842. It was initially named Queenstown but was soon known as Victoria. The name "Victoria" is rarely used today except to refer to the Victoria Park, The Peak, the harbour and a number of roads and streets. It was often said to be the "capital" of Hong Kong during its time as a colony of the United Kingdom, as almost all government departments have their head offices located there.

Location

It was located in present-day Central, and named for Queen Victoria in 1843. The city occupied what is now Central, Admiralty and part of Sheung Wan, on Hong Kong Island. In 1903, the Hong Kong Government erected seven boundary stones for the city, inscribed City Boundary 1903 at Hatton Road (克頓道), Pok Fu Lam Road (薄扶林道), Bowen Road (寶雲道), Old Peak Road (舊山頂道), Wong Nai Chung Road (黃泥涌道), Victoria Road (域多利道) and Magazine Gap Road (馬己仙峽道). All remain, except for the one in Magazine Gap Road, which disappeared around mid-June, 2007. [http://www.amo.gov.hk/en/trails_west2.php?tid=6 amo.gov.hk] [http://www.hkdatabase.com/component/option,com_openwiki/Itemid,2/id,%E7%B6%AD%E5%A4%9A%E5%88%A9%E4%BA%9E%E5%9F%8E%E7%95%8C%E7%9F%B3/ (Chinese)PHOTO]

History

In 1857, the British government expanded the scope of Victoria City and divided it into four "wan"s" (環, jyutping: "waan4", pinyin: "huàn", literally "rings"). The four "wans" are "Sai Wan" ("West Ring" in Chinese, present-day Sai Wan, including Kennedy Town, Shek Tong Tsui, and Sai Ying Pun), "Sheung Wan" ("Upper Ring" in Chinese, present-day Sheung Wan), "Choong Wan" or "Chung Wan" ("Central Ring" in Chinese, present-day Central) and "Ha Wan" ("Lower Ring" in Chinese, present-day Wan Chai). Except "Ha Wan"; "Sai Wan", "Sheung Wan" and "Choong Wan" retain the same name in Chinese today.

The four "wans" are further divided into nine "yeuk"s" (約, jyutping: "joek3", pinyin: "yuē", similar to "district" or "neighbourhood"). The coverage also included parts of East Point and Happy Valley (West of Wong Nai Chung Road on the east side of the Racecourse). In 1903, boundary stones were established to mark the City's boundary and six of them are still preserved today. The stones spread from Causeway Bay to Kennedy Town [Wordie, Jason. [2002] (2002) Streets: Exploring Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 962-2095631] .

In the 1890s the capital city extended four miles west to east along the coastal strip. Buildings were made of granite and brick. Buses and the new tramway would become the main form of transportation in the area. [Sanderson, Edgar. [1897] (1897) The British Empire in the Nineteenth Century: Its Progress and Expansion at Home and Abroad. Blackie publishing. No ISBN digitalized doc from Stanford University.]

Districts

Also called "yeuks".
*Shektongtsui
*Sai Ying Poon
*Taipingshan - Victoria Peak or The Peak or Mount Austin
*Sheung Wan
*Choong Wan (today's Central)
*Ha Wan (today's Admiralty)
*Wan Chai
*Bowrington (between today's Wan Chai and Causeway Bay)
*Soo Kun Po

ee also

* Praya
* History of Hong Kong
* List of buildings, sites and areas in Hong Kong
* List of places named for Queen Victoria, for a list of places named after Queen Victoria

External links

* [http://www.legislation.gov.hk/blis_ind.nsf/E1BF50C09A33D3DC482564840019D2F4/B433C7F894FA9F9E48256648002F6F13?OpenDocument Boundary of the City of Victoria as defined in Hong Kong Laws] , Cap 1 SCHED 1 of Hong Kong Law
* [http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:kZhFEpYoYxIJ:cd.ed.gov.hk/pshe/tc/chihistory/downloads/CH_S1-3_Pkg5_07.doc+%22victoria+city%22++hong+kong+1857&hl=en Article on history of Hong Kong] (in Chinese)
* [http://www.hk-place.com/db.php?post=d007004 Photos of the 1903 boundary stones]
* [http://www.cwfestival.org/images/pdf/history/032.pdf A article on the "four wans and nine yeuks" in Chinese] (Adobe PDF format)
* [http://szlib.szptt.net.cn/hk97/j2a.htm Another article on "four wans and nine yeuks"] (in Simplified Chinese)

References